Rave for Hunter ceiling fans

[vavet]

I hung a ceiling fan with a LED panel in our bedroom about 8 years ago. The light started acting funny….it would get dim after being on several minutes and then it started flickering. It was a Hampton Bay…a Home Depot house brand, I think.

I decided to replace the whole thing and I found a hunter I liked. I got the old one removed and the realized the simply beauty of the Hunter instructions. The hardware for each step is bagged separately and marked with a unique shape. The shape is shown in the instruction booklet and on the bags, every company should package hardware like this. It’s fantastic!

 

[WildBill]

Hunter is great, they sent me a new motor for a fan that was in a friends house when she bought it about 15 years ago. For free, no hassle and they were super nice. They even paid shipping.

 

[The Bean]

I've got four Casablanca ceiling fans in my house. Three of them are 52". They are all more than 25 years old, work as well as the day they were installed new (by previous owner), and have required no maintenance save for annual dusting. They are all made in USA.
When Hunter bought Casablanca in late 90s, they shifted all manufacturing to Taiwan. They still use the name, but it's not the same quality. The reason that today's consumer rave over Hunter fans is because the comparative products come mainly from China.
A friend recently bought a ceiling fan and chandeliers for a townhouse he was renovating for himself. I helped by installing them. Wayfair, I believe. Chinesium ****. You should have seen the ones he threw away for the upgrade. Yeesh!

 

[KenC]

The last Hunter I installed was in 1980 or 81. Cast iron housing, oil reservoir on the top for the bearings. They hadn't changed since the very early 1900's.

I took a couple of old ones from an bank building erected in 1906. Still working and just like the new one I put in the house. Really solidly built, but a real b....h to hold over your head when on a tall ladder.

Shortly after they began changing to more modern build techniques and materials, read that as cheaper.

 

[nadogail]

IMHO, The older fans were built to a Quality, the newer fans are built to meet a Price Point, without regard to their quality.
You want a cheaper one? We can build it for you.

 

[PCustoms]

I thought hunter wasn't much better then a HD house brand now?

My living room fan is an Emerson DC drive. Dead quiet, fully adjustable and low profile. On 24/7 for easily 5yrs now to circulate heat from the wood stove or AC from the window unit.

Good reminder I need to go to the "reverse" button on the wall plate....

 

[123Go]

Well I'm sure your fans up & running OP but fwiw:
We bought a top of the line fancy Hunter fan like 20yrs yrs ago. Its not like homestores fans mainly big Fan/light shops offered their higher end lines then. Its one of their largest high efficiency HD motors with a thick (cast) brass ornate motor shell. This isnt a dinky 2 pound 4" round motor inside a large 12" tin/plastic shell case so it's motor looks real big like most ceiling fans.
No' this Hunters very heavy, if you dare mount this thing in a regular light box its coming down first test run so duck & cover.
You gotta mount this fan with an actual fan support bar & even then this fan has a long built-in steel safety cable you install around rafters in case it does come down the steel cable catches it. I don't remember the weight but' oh what a beast.
But this fan was ovér $1000 new back then even. Our local fan shop had (2 still sealed) on clearance for $300ea so we got one. We actually brought our fans with us to this new home cause well' "They just dont make chit like they used too".
I bought a similar Monte Carlo fan about a yr later the same way. The big heavy motor there too & between these two the Monte runs smoother than the Hunter & pushes air better too. Both have extra wide real wood blades fwiw.
The Hunter always had a slight vibe on its highest setting even though its a self balanced system so I keep a weight on one blade.
I called Hunter who rushed us all new blades free but it didn't stop the vibe. They offered us a whole new fan motor but honestly I read so many negs on their self balance system failures & passed. It just wasn't worth the hastle to R&R that heavy sucker myself when a tiny fan weight I already owned perfected it. Good chance it may still needed one anyway & may of been worse who knows?
But yes' the service I experienced for Hunter was great, True!
20yrs to play with that so maybe their self balance system is reliable today idk?

Before buying a fan first consider how often one plans on using it, just a lil or a lot?
Being old & fat we run ours a lot so the fans with little cheap motors wore out fast. So we hit all our fan/light shops to find something better back then.
1) The lightweight fans show high CFM ratings but like floor jack stickers we know China lies. So are CFMs true?
2) The tiny electric motors have so little copper winding inside they aren't very efficient nor reliable.
They over work easy needing to run on their Highest setting most, if not all the time vs on Med/Low any HD motor operates on. That excess heat destroys the light weight fan motors much sooner.
Its why industrial electric motors weigh so much, loaded with copper so the heat from running 24/7 won't kill them off.
Fan corps once bragged about their motor specs, now that's always hidden.
Imagine that!

 

[beltfeed]

I've got four Casablanca ceiling fans in my house. Three of them are 52". They are all more than 25 years old, work as well as the day they were installed new (by previous owner), and have required no maintenance save for annual dusting. They are all made in USA.
When Hunter bought Casablanca in late 90s, they shifted all manufacturing to Taiwan. They still use the name, but it's not the same quality. The reason that today's consumer rave over Hunter fans is because the comparative products come mainly from China.
A friend recently bought a ceiling fan and chandeliers for a townhouse he was renovating for himself. I helped by installing them. Wayfair, I believe. Chinesium ****. You should have seen the ones he threw away for the upgrade. Yeesh!

I have three 35-year-old Casablancas, they run as smooth and quiet as the day there were installed. I paid $2000 for the three of them with wall remotes back then. There is nothing on the market that can hold a candle to the old Casablancas.

 

[123Go]

Yep' seen my share of people who have reality backwards tossing old gold out thats 50x better than chit they just bought. "Thats old junk!"....Geeez!
Im still using my 1976 & 1988 Wheel Horse tractors here and watch everyone around me buy/toss newer throwaway riders every 3-5yrs all the while their so confused over why I'd keep old tractors for so long? Neither of my tractors ever had anything but maintenance & wear items like blades/belts/batteries/tires & new spindle bearings that only cost $5 each. No majors in over 40yrs, see' we used to build things that outlasted several owners! But instead of fixing small issues people scrap everything over nothing now. STOP IT!
3yrs ago I saw a like new low hour Wheelhorse 312-8 & told a friend to snag it cause he needed a mower bad. He said, "Thats too old" & bought a "used" one yr old Homestore John Deere 100 cookie cutter for $400 more instead. Its just about done already, Go figure? That's a 5yr mower vs a 50yr tractor math wise...
I miss those days when quality meant more than a word. You just know a well made motor when you lift it.
When my last homes attic fan (1970's Daytona) motor seized because I didnt think to oil its bearings as required with old motors..duuh. My poor bil like to got a hernia hauling my new Baldor replacement motor up my 20ft ladder. He's the strong man, sorry bro..lol
All I found locally was junk China attic fans that would surely fail quick so I just upgraded my old fan motor instead. In mid summer it ran day/night for days & I'm not one to fix things twice.
Normally I maintain my stuff, sometimes to the point Ive even been called **** over it by freinds. Well I think thats what they meant, cause they say "Man your such an A$$#ole" as I was leaving one day.
Okay yeah its everday they scream that but I fix stuff.

 

[dave*99]

I installed a Hunter Original in my last house in 1995. Big heavy fan. It has an oiling system and comes with a tube of oil that gets added at install time. Grooves on the motor shaft recirculate the oil in operation. It runs very quiet and trouble free.
It's nothing like the cheaper Hunters I've purchased in HD more recently.

 

[123Go]

Those were the best fans! I grew up in the days were oiling & greasing bearings was common before the junk sealed bearings were everywhere.
When possible I remove their seal so I can lube the bearings to add yrs to them. My old Wheel Horse was designed to lube all its spindles/hubs etc but sealed bearings are all you find. So I remove the bearings sheild on install, usually just the side of the bearing the grease zerk feeds the grease to it as some came with one sheild even in the 70's.
Most China sealed bearings I take sheilds off hardly have any grease at all inside. Barely see it on your finger if you touch the bearings.
Massive grease shortage there I assume?

 

[Notgrownup]

I have 2 Hunter fans in my living room that have been on for 22 years almost . That says plenty for me.

 

[123Go]

I know most folks run fans on hot summer days "only" & most fans can easily last over a decade then.
A good efficient fan on "reverse low" helps circulate warm air in the winter making rooms more comfortable & $ave$ you too. Cheap fans have a hard time lasting long running this much.
The majority of fans sold today especially all in one Fan/Light kits homestores carry have tiny motors now because Govs Energy savings laws made fan corps limit their Motor & Lighting power ratings too much. Try putting 100 watt bubs in one, if they dont flash be thankful.
When these laws first started, some fans even had low watt Christmas light bulbs inside until LED prices lowered.
That way it's motor would still be big enough for the fan to blow great.
My old neighbor got one of those dandy's about 10yrs ago & she sent it back because the light was horrible on it. It had the big motor & it sure was pretty, of course the Christmas bulbs were hidden by the globe. Don't recall brand but it was a 60"? May been a Monte, sorry memory fails me but fair warning Christmas light fans are out there.
Small motor fans tend to be too slow to move air well enough & they get pretty buzzy on low. Less efficient, wear out sooner so their more annoying than anything. Hey their $79 though...lol

 

[123Go]

Remove!

 

[123Go]

Sorry, posted twice? 1st didnt show, posted again then both showed up?
Sorry...removed 2nd here.

 

[Packard V8]

Agree. We've had a top-of-the-line Casablanca for twenty years now. Still looks classy and works well.

However, when the rubber hub onto which the blades mount failed, the good news was they still have the part. The bad news is that bad boy had to come down from a vaulted ceiling and be completely disassembled to replace the hub. While some brag on Casablanca engineering and construction, I saw a couple of ways to have made the fan so the hub could be replaced without taking down the whole unit.

Bottom line - I don't know where to go to buy better.

jack vines

 

[nadogail]

Good Stuff isn't Cheap and Cheap Stuff is almost never Good.